Good Morning, Sunshine

Upon graduating from KYCOM, Kristen Kendrick, D.O. ’11 KYCOM ’17, moved to Charlotte, N.C., for her residency in Family Medicine at the Carolinas Medical Center, a UNC teaching hospital. Writing and journalism have always been an interest of hers, mostly with the goal of improving public health literacy. She had dabbled in it earlier in residency without much traction, until she met a local doctor who has worked with NBC for years, winning Emmys for his coverage of events such as the Olympics. Kendrick says he gave her some excellent guidance and encouraged her to seek opportunities to write and produce without fearing failure.

“In the fall, I wrapped up a month-long stint in Manhattan working at ABC News, writing for the medical unit in their digital platforms and helping to review and produce scripts for Good Morning America, ABC News Live and World News Tonight with David Muir.” Kendrick said. “Being on set at GMA almost every morning and all over the city for shoots and events, even covering a UN Summit in the Rainbow Room at the top of Rockefeller Center was, without a doubt, the experience of a lifetime.”

Despite all this, the real excitement came in January upon discovering she had been selected as the 2020 Georgetown University Health and Media Fellow, the only fellowship position of its kind in the U.S.

“After graduating residency in July, I will be heading to Washington, D.C., to start the fellowship,” Kendrick said. “Half of my time will be spent practicing medicine and teaching med students and residents in Georgetown's Family Medicine Department, and the other half or more will be spent with NPR and ABC getting more national media experience and trying to help improve our country’s health literacy.”

Kendrick credits her time at Pikeville for allowing her to see her wildest dreams come true and says she would not be where she is today if she had not attended UPIKE or KYCOM.

“Specifically, I think about Dr. Thomas Hess for keeping me on track in the sciences while I was an undergraduate, taking me under his wing when I had lost my way,” she said.

“I think the individual attention and guidance I received from the wonderful professors truly made these accomplishments possible and I’m just so very thankful for them and the UPIKE community. I want everyone in the UPIKE family to know how much I appreciate their support over the years. The faculty, staff, directors, donors and all those that have stake in our school have been people I’ve been in churches and classrooms with throughout my life, and I admire them all so much.”